Tuesday Tutorial - Refrigerator Chic

It's been a long time. Too long really, but now, I proudly announce the return of
*drum roll*
The Tuesday Tutorial!

Some of my favorite layouts are made to look like something other than a scrapbook page. It could be a page out of a notebook, or a photo on the fridge. In order to do this I have often had to create some of the elements myself. Not because it doesn't exist out there, but usually because I was to impatient to search for it, or to cheap to purchase it. One of the easiest and most versatile is the magnet.

What You'll Need:
Photoshop
Small item that could be made into a magnet (optional)

Tools Used:
Drop Shadow
Bevel/Emboss
Text

Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times...

1. Open a new image in Photoshop. Any size you want. I'm going to be using a 12"x12"(864 pixels x 864 pixels) image because that is the size I use for my layouts.
   
   
2. Take the text tool and type the letters A, B and C with each letter on it's own layer. Blocky, basic fonts work best if you're going for the classic Alphabet Magnet look. I'm using Turkey Sandwich which can be found here. I will post a list of suggested fonts as well.
3. Now colour your letters. I'm using the primary colours, because once again it lends a very basic Alphabet Magnet feel to it. (DB0808, 192BD7, EFFC27). Highlight the text you want to colour and double click on the coloured box in your text toolbar (across the top) to bring up your colour picker.
   
   
   
   
4. Next you want to add a drop shadow add layer style (select the stylized f from the bottom of your layers pallette)>drop shadow and the bevel and emboss effect add layer style>bevel and emboss. Tick the box for contour under Bevel and Emboss on the left of the add layer style window.
   
   
   
   
5. Repeat step 4 with the other two layers and there you have it. Alphabet Magnets.
6. If you want to make magnets out of an object, simply open the image, and do step 4 on it. Feel free to play around with the drop shadow and Bevel and Emboss effect untill your magnet is to your liking.

by rotating the 'magnets' slightly, you can get a slightly haphazard

Tuesday Tutorial - Selective Desaturating

This Tuesday, we're going to go over how to make part of you photo's black and white, but keep the rest coloured or vice versa. This technique is great when you want to bring attention to a certain part of the picture only, such as the colour of something or someones eyes.

Tools Used:
Polygonal/Magnetic Lasso
Desaturation


What You'll Need:
Photoshop
Your picture


Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines...

1. Open you photo. I'm going to use this photo of red tulips outside of my high school.
2. Next select the area you want to remain coloured (or if there is more coloured than black and white, select the area you wish to desturate). The easiest way to do this is using the magnetic lasso tool. This will automatically "stick" to the edges of a shape based on the pixel colour. However sometimes it gets confused and can be frustrating so you may want to use the polygonal lasso.
3. With both tools, you simply click at your starting point then guide the line around the shape. With the Polygonal lasso you will have to click again at any corners as it only does straight lines. Double click when you get back to the starting point.
4. Create a new layer of what you have just selected. edit>copy, edit>paste or ctrl+J If you selected the area you wanted to destaurate, rather than what you wanted to keep coloured, invert you selection first. select>inverse or ctrl+shift+i)
5. Select the original image in your layers palette and desaturate it image>adjustments>desaturate or ctrl+shift+u
6. Last step is to merge the two layers. layer>merge visible (or merge down) or ctrl+shift+E (ctrl+E)
   

Perfect!

Here are some examples:

Tuesday Tutorial - Text with Pizzaz

This week I will be showing you how to take regular old text and make it stand out. Sure you can change the font, add some colour maybe position it better, but what about when you want to make it REALLY POP?

What you'll need:
Photoshop
clipart/picture of a small gem

Tools Used:
type
drop shadow
bevel/emboss
texture

On your marks, Set get, OG!

1. Open a new image. Any size and background you desire.
2. Using the type tool (T on your sidebar) create some text. I wrote Smile using the font Gigi, F71595.
3. Add a drop shadow. Layer>layer style>drop shadow
4. Apply the Bevel/Emboss setting and texture. Layer>layer style>Bevel Emboss Layer>layer style>Bevel Emboss>Texture
5. Open your gem picture and delete any background by using either the eraser of Magic Wand selector if it is a solid colour. I found my picture on google.
6. Drag the image onto your image with the text.
   
7. On your text image, resize and position the gem over the dot in the 'i'.
8. Add a drop shadow to the gem. Layer>layer style>drop shadow I used the default settings.

And your done. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Glitterizing

This weeks tutorial is rather short due to excessive homework. I'm going to demostrate how to make something look glittery, like with the Squiggly Tree's.

What you'll need:
Photoshop (I use 7.0)

Tools Used:
Custom Shape tool
noise filter

And we're off...

1. Create a new transparent layer, with dimensions of your choice.
2. Create a shape using the custom shape tool. right-click shape icon>custom shape>(shape of your choice). I used the Fleur de Lise shape and made it gold (#D5AB2C)
3. Rasterize your new shape right-click layer>rasterize
4. Add some noise filter>noise>add noise. You can adjust this to your liking, I used 22.3%, Gaussian. Make sure that the monochrome box is checked.
5. All done! You can now add a drop shadow if you would like and do what you like with the finished product.